I can’t imagine you’ve been sitting there wondering where I am as most of you will have no doubt found me elsewhere. Instagram (especially Stories) is my domain of choice these days and whilst I haven’t been posting here, I have been wittering on (and on) over on “the grid”.

With that in mind, I thought it could be helpful to round-up some of my more ‘bloggy’ Insta posts in one place as there have been a few which could prove to be useful. Hopefully. As even if what I’ve been sharing has been a rambling mess, other mums have often provided much more insightful advice in the comments section.

I won’t link to every post ever, if you want to read them all just scroll through my page, but given that I don’t want to abandon my blog *entirely* I thought I’d link the more pertinent ones below…

I’m aware I haven’t been updating much…at all…so here’s a little video on all things third trimester and why I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet! My last video update before they arrive?! Maaaaaaaybe!

Granted I’ve spent the vast majority of this pregnancy “overthinking things”, but the subject of sleep arrangements for the twins seemed to occupy a particularly overwhelming amount of brain space.

Should they share a little crib? Or should we think long-term and just start with giant cotbeds? And should we get two so that they can be separated or should we assume they’ll be happy to share? And what about moses baskets? HOW CUTE ARE MOSES BASKETS?! And co-sleepers? And co-bedding in general? And oh god what if they keep each other awake and drive each other crazy? Or what if they won’t actually settle at all unless squished nice and close together? And where will we, the supposed responsible adults in this situation, choose to sleep? Should we give up all notions of sharing a marital bed now? Should we move downstairs? WHAT THE HELL SHOULD WE DO?!

If that last paragraph was exhausting to read then please, consider it an insight into how exhausting I have found my inner dialogue for as long as I care to remember.

We are very lucky in that we had options, we had a choice of rooms to convert into a nursery. There were a few curveballs along the way, such as impending roof works which will involve abseiler access to our current bedroom (lol) and the big decision of whether or not to keep our bedroom upstairs given that I’ll be having a c-section and stairs seem like an unnecessary headache (or wombache), but we finally settled on moving ourselves downstairs into a guest bedroom and converting the bedroom opposite that into a nursery. In hindsight this was the incredibly obvious way to do things, but hey! Pregnancy has transformed me into an illogical moron.

Once we’d settled on rooms, it was time to think about cots. We knew we wanted to follow NHS guidelines and share a room with the twins, but given the fact there are two babies it seemed (as always) like our options were that bit different to the other parents-to-be cooing over the moses baskets in John Lewis.

As I plan to breastfeed and will be recovering from a section, I had always assumed we’d get one of the nifty co-sleeper cribs like a SnuzPod or a Next2Me, but when I saw these in the flesh I realised just how small they really are. You wouldn’t get two babies in a SnuzPod and I’d imagine they’d grow out of a Next2Me pretty quickly. (Although I’ve seen quite a few twin mums do use the Next2Me for the first few months and they’re a lot bigger than the SnuzPod, so they’re definitely an option).

I considered perhaps getting two SnuzPods for either side of the bed but wasn’t sure if that was wise in case the twins needed to be close to one another to settle, then there was the ever-present voice in my ear from various shop assistants who basically said you may as well get them in a cotbed from the get-go. Yes, they’re more expensive in the beginning – but saves you buying something bigger when they inevitably outgrow their cutesy small surroundings. Oh and then there was also the fact that EVERY MUM EVER had said I *needed* Sleepyheads, so I was looking for something which could ideally take the bulk of two Sleepyheads in one cot.

And then we had a breakthrough! Whilst researching options for bouncers/places to put the babies in the day, I had a flurry of Insta DMs saying I should check out the Stokke Tripp Trapp chairs. Now this wasn’t initially helpful in the cot search, sure, but it introduced me to the Stokke Instagram and before long I was falling in love with everything in their feed. Cots, prams, bouncers – you name it. I was spending half my free time on BabyCentre and the other half designing the dream nursery on the Stokke website. I was convinced the Sleepi bed was the solution for us. AND I WAS CORRECT.

Now I appreciate that the babies aren’t here yet so a “review” as such may not make much sense at this stage, but having built the cots and seen them all gorgeous and perfect in the nursery I know that this was the right choice for us.

They were superbly simple to assemble (god bless Nordic design) and they felt incredibly well-made and sturdy. Yes, they’re a timeless style and very pretty to look at it but they felt really substantial too if that makes sense. Crucially, they feel very safe.

The best part for us is that they’re on lockable wheels, I cannot tell you how brilliant this is. They fit through all our doorways and our downstairs seems to be the ideal layout to maximise this wheel-about potential. I can wheel them anywhere! The babies could join me in my office, they could be in the lounge, heck they could even come into the bathroom if I’m in the shower. In a moment of mean mum-ness I pointed out to ST that maybe we didn’t even need a nursery at all, they could just sleep in the hallway! (I have since retracted this comment and if you are reading this in the future dear babies, I am sorry that I said you could live in the hall).

The real selling point of the Sleepi though is that it’s a cot that “grows with your child”. I’ve nicked the below pic from their website to illustrate, but basically the adjustable mattress height and removable sides mean that the cot will last AGES…

I’ve actually removed the side from one of our cots and pushed it right up to (what will be) our bed, so that when I am recovering from the section I will have both babies close to hand.

I have both cots built and ready as we simply can’t predict what the babies will be like. They may want their own space, they may want to be together. They may hate the Sleepyheads, they may not sleep without them. Sometimes one might be poorly and the other will be well – there’s just so many variables! I suspect though that we’ll keep one cot in our bedroom all the time, then the other cot will mostly be in the nursery so they get used to sleeping in there in the daytime but it will also be wheeled about so they can join us in the lounge and so on. I don’t know if babies really need to “get used to” sleeping in their nursery, but I like that it’s an option.

In time we’ll lower the mattress, it’s currently on the highest of four settings, then we’ll buy the extension kit to make the whole bed bigger when they’re toddlers. It just seems like after so much stressing, this *might* just be the perfect solution for us. I do appreciate that the odd layout of our upstairs/downstairs and wide hallway means we get particularly good use out of these cots, but I think that even if you didn’t ever use the wheels they’d be a great option for many nurseries.

I should also point out that if space is limited for sharing a bedroom in the first six months, the Sleepi does also come in a Mini size. The Sleepi Mini is OFFICIALLY ADORABLE and can be converted into a bigger bed with extension kits as your baby grows and moves onto their own room…

I’ve seen newborn twins fit in a Sleepi Mini, but as I was adamant that we needed to have the Sleepyheads (can ya tell I’m really susceptible to good marketing?!) I wanted us to start with the larger Sleepi Bed so we had the option of having two Sleepyheads in one cot.

Like with our pram and all our other “big ticket items”, I will of course review these cots again once the babies are here and using them…but so far I am really over the moon with them. I’ll also review the Sleepyheads and the swaddle bags that I’ve bought in the vain hope that I’ll be getting any sleep at all this side of Christmas.

AND I will of course be doing a little nursery tour blog post once our families know the genders. I’m a little bit thrilled with the nursery decor, not to mention some of the absolute BARGAINS I picked up by shopping for second hand bits on Facebook Marketplace. I CAN’T WAIT TO SHOW YOU!

Not long now!

x

Disclaimer: I have been contacted by a lot of brands during the pregnancy about reviewing various items, including cot manufacturers. I’ve not accepted any press samples unless they’re items I’m genuinely interested in or was already considering buying, partly because I don’t want a house full of baby clutter but also because I need to be realistic about how much time I’ll actually have to review things when the twins are finally here! Stokke provided me with these cots to review and I am exceptionally grateful that they did so, especially as I am under no obligation to write positively about them. I have no paid relationship with Stokke. Shopping for a newborn is expensive (doubly so for twins!) and I wouldn’t recommend or work with any brands if I didn’t genuinely love their products. You can read more about how I work with brands on my disclosure page here.

Having already shared what’s in my c-section hospital bag, I finally got around to filming a general update on how I’ve been feeling (clue: RUBBISH) and what I’ve packed to take to hospital for the twins…

Hopefully I won’t be needing this bag for a while yet but you never know!

Post-babies, I’m going to try to write a blog post on the “perfect” c-section hospital bag. For now though, this is what I have packed!

Obviously I have no idea really if this is going to turn out to be the right stuff and that’s why I’ll definitely be updating with a proper blog post after the birth, but I am feeling pretty confident with my packing especially having now factored in the feedback from your comments on both the video itself and over on Instagram.

I’ve packed a separate case for the twins so this video just covers MY stuff (nighties, flip flops, snacks etc) but you can see what I have packed for the babbas here.